With horse sense and great taste, equestrian businesswoman Jo Ellard is right on-brand with her luxury Bowie House boutique hotel in Fort Worth.
We wanted to get to know Jo Ellard, the dynamic cowgirl, entrepreneur, and owner of the instantly iconic Bowie House, Auberge Resorts Collection. We sat down with her at the new luxury property in Fort Worth to talk about building a massively successful family business, establishing ranching roots, and being a leader in the horse-show world.
Jo Ellard grew up in the South with a built-in best friend in her identical twin sister, Jean, their mutual love of horses, and a genetically entrenched drive to succeed. Ellard has carried those themes through her life into adulthood, always holding leadership positions, be it in academics or athletics and eventually in business and the competitive world of cutting horses.
Initially pursuing a career in healthcare, Ellard became a critical-care nurse and supervisor. Then she met her late husband, Bill, a rodeo-cowboy-turned-savvy-businessman—and her life course changed westward. She stood alongside him as he built the highly successful insurance company National Teacher Associates, Inc. Together they raised two sons, grew their business, and began their passion project of developing ranches.
PHOTOGRAPHY: Courtesy Steve Wrubel
“My husband loved ranches,” Ellard says from a comfortably appointed suite at Bowie House, where just outside in the hallway, workmen are putting the finishing touches on the interior before the grand opening in December 2023. “He would buy the land, and I would lay it out and get it all organized, and then we'd build it and develop it. Then he'd go buy another one,” Ellard says laughing. “It was the most fun life experience that my husband and I did together, was our ranching. It was really special.”
In the beginning, the Ellards focused on raising registered Hereford cattle. “Like we do everything,” she says, “we immersed ourselves in it. Bill served on the board. I served on the auxiliary board and on the foundation board of the American Hereford Association.”
But it wasn’t long before Ellard’s love of horses, which hadn’t faded even though she hadn’t had a horse since childhood, crept back in. She knew she would have to have horses on their first ranch in Mississippi, but it wasn’t until a friend introduced her to the sport of cutting that Ellard found her ultimate equine passion.
“Cutting represented what the cowboys had to use to work their cattle herds. I was amazed at that. You just get on your horse. You get a cow out there, and you drop your hand and don't do anything. You just hold on, and the horse will do it all. That just amazed me. So I said, ‘OK, yep, that’s what I’m gonna do,’ Ellard recalls. “I loved it, the thrill of it, that horse doing a dance with a cow.”
PHOTOGRAPHY: Courtesy Steve Wrubel
Eventually the Ellards would build five ranches: the first in Mississippi; a Midwestern ranch in Kansas; a cutting horse operation in Pilot Point, north of Dallas; a stallion station in Whitesboro, Texas; and an alfalfa farm in Wyoming.
“For us, it was a passion,” Ellard says. “Instead of going to the country club, we would go to the ranches. We have lived a corporate life in the city raising our kids, but there is nothing like getting in that car, driving to that ranch, and opening that door. You are just surrounded by the wide-open skies, the green grass, and the animals. There’s just something about that that no vacation can equal.”
After Ellard’s two sons graduated from high school, she had more time to devote to her love of competitive cutting. In typical ready-to-ride fashion, Ellard began to take on leadership roles in the cutting horse industry, serving as president of the National Cutting Horse Association (NCHA) for a time. Perhaps the role she’s most proud of is her work developing the National Youth Cutting Horse Association, which she patterned off of her experience with the American Junior Hereford Association. Ellard spent 10 years on that endeavor and saw firsthand the benefits for today’s youth, from strengthening family bonds to equipping them with skills for the future.
“That agricultural lifestyle gifts children such a maturity, a responsibility, and a team attitude,” Ellard says. “Having to work with other people and with their animals, it’s such a disciplined regimen that they go through, whether they’re competing, or they just are growing up on a ranch.”
PHOTOGRAPHY: Courtesy Steve Wrubel
Her dedication to the youth of the sport did not go unnoticed. For it, she was inducted into the NCHA Member Hall of Fame. “A Member Hall of Fame is such an incredible honor, because your peers recognize extraordinary effort on your part to give something to the association to make it better,” Ellard says. Eventually her achievements in the show ring earned Ellard a spot in the Non-Pro Hall of Fame.
Meanwhile, Ellard was also leading the way in business. After her husband passed away in 2010, she took the lead at their insurance company, with help from her son. They successfully led the company until the family sold it in 2018.
Ellard jokes that she used to never spend more than three nights in one zip code, navigating between her ranches, attending cutting shows, working in business, or yachting (another of Ellard’s passions). “I've just had a really busy life, building ranches, enjoying our cattle and our horses and our children, and it’s great to see them have a great life,” Ellard says.
It hasn’t been without tragedy — sadly, she lost her younger son, his wife, and stepchildren in a plane crash in 2019. But Ellard takes comfort in her family, including two grandchildren and her tight-knit ranch staff, her horses, her work, and her latest passion project, Bowie House.
“I can’t Imagine not having a project,” she says. “I just have worked on something all my life. I really enjoy working. If I walk in the house and I have a choice of sitting down to watch a movie or go work, I’m going to go work every time.”
That relentless entrepreneurial spirit and a love of the city of Fort Worth are what prompted Ellard to pioneer the Bowie House hotel. She was spending so much time in Cowtown at horse shows that she naturally hit on the idea of buying some property. As with her other visionary endeavors, hard work made the dream a reality, and there’s an exciting new hotel where there was once a beer bar. With its refined equestrian vibe, blend of worldly luxury, and iconic Western hospitality, the newly opened Bowie House, Auberge Resorts Collection promises to become a favorite for locals and travelers. Another success story for a passion-fueled and adventurous life.
Learn more about the NCHA Super Stakes, NCHA Summer Cutting Spectacular, and futurity events.
